Record Labels

Major record labels
The music industry is dominated by four major record labels, these include;
Universal
Sony Music
Warner Brothers
Emi
These are referred to as "The Majors" . The majority of these are backed up by conglomerated with stakes in other industries such as film, TV and electronics.

Major independents
The major independents include;
Columbia-This is owned by Sony Music
Island-This is owned by Universal
Syco-This is owned by Sony Music
RCA-Owned by Sony Entertainment
Virgin-This is owned by Universal

These are known as Major independents as they are owned by the major record labels. The major independents reach different audiences with different genres of music.
Independents
There are many small companies who have little to no financial connection to the majors.
These companies often focus on a small number of acts with specialized niches in the industry.
An example of a successful independent record label is domino records.

Often most record labels start off as independents and when they gain in popularity are supported by the majors to become major independents.

You can see the size differences between the majors,major independents and independent record labels by looking at their you tube channels, Universal music have over 2 million subscribers, Island records have 110 thousand subscribers and Domino records have 205 thousand subscribers.
The major record labels have hundreds to thousands of artists signed to them where as the independents such as domino have less than 60 artists signed to them. The major record labels are most likely to have the most popular mainstream artists where as the major independents and independents are more likely to feature less popular artists and genres.